Tuesday, October 28, 2014

One thing that our school is heavily focusing on this year is citing evidence to written responses. Our school has focused a lot on sentence stems to actually cite evidence which is great! But the students also have to be able to find the evidence. Here are a couple of ways for your students to locate the evidence and show the teacher where they found the evidence to their answers.

1) Writing the Question # Next to the Evidence

When the students are answering a particular question, have them write the question number directly next to where they found the answer. This shows that they found the evidence and it can help you identify students who need help locating evidence if they constantly are placing the #s in the wrong place.

2) Highlighting Evidence

Have your students use highlighters to highlight their evidence in a passage that has been copied for them.

Reading trackers are not only good for tracking reading, but they are also good for citing evidence. I actually got this idea from one of my creative colleagues, Deb Wirth. Students can use their tracker to to find their evidence and show the teacher.

One final strategy is to use colored overlays. These are really nice for when a student needs to use a text book or something that cannot be copied. The student just lays the overlay on the page and can use a dry erase marker to underline evidence. If you don't want to purchase the overlays, then you can use extra lamination.

The colored trackers and the colored overlays help the students remember things better because the brain sees and remembers color first. "Color opens up other areas of the brain and allows great and easier learning and remembering." So by using the colored overlays and trackers to cite evidence, the students are not only practicing an important skill, they are also remembering the content better. To read more on Learning Through Color, click here.

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Tonight I was attending a webinar on Active Engagement Strategies with Laura Candler and I learned about this fabulous new response system called PLICKERS! Its a free app and an alternative to clickers, activeexpressions, etc.